Sam's Hotel, Gambling Hall, Multiplex Theatre and Bowling Alley

Las Vegas, Nevada



The sunrise over our campground in Lake Mead is nice. We are dry camping so we sleep with the windows open and no covers.



I left the Brake Buddy turned on all night so the Toyota battery is dead. I clean the crud off the positive battery terminal with the gas grill wire brush and start the RV generator. At first the battery charger gives off a fault reading, so I fool with it until it starts to work properly.



We drive to Las Vegas and drop off the RV to get the dash air-conditioner compressor hose replaced. It seems like a good time to visit downtown Las Vegas once again, while we wait. We have breakfast in the Venetian. It's a strange feeling to have a good breakfast in a luxurious setting at 11 AM on a workday. The feeling of really being seriously retired sweeps over me.



We pause for a rum and coke and I pay $8.50 for a small drink at a casino bar. The shopping in the hotel corridors is very high end. Vegas is a little like Disneyland. The foreclosure rate on homes in Las Vegas is second only to Lee County in Florida near Fort Myers. We see a number of shuttered businesses as we drive around the city.



The Fleetwood RV dealer wants to keep the RV overnight so we cruise out to look at the Valley of Fire State Park NE of Las Vegas. I've always wanted to see it and now we have extra time on our hands.



We return to Las Vegas in the evening and check into a sprawling casino complex away from the center of town, near the Fleetwood dealer. I study the thousands of slot machines but I can't understand how any of them work. None of them accept coins anymore or pay off in coins. You have to insert bills or vouchers to play. They all have electronic displays and seem to be variations on card games or have other confusing electronic icons in place of the once familiar mechanical dial with bars and cherries. There is one antique machine, under glass, that I think I could play. I feel like a fossil.


The Casino has a number of restaurants, an arcade, bowling alleys, numerous restaurants and a Duncan Donuts. We have the buffet for dinner and are disappointed with the food quality and preparation.


This morning we'll kill some time with breakfast and maybe find a car wash and shop for some new radials for the Toyota...then on to Death Valley.